US faces economic emergency

Politicians, economists and pundits blithely agree that the economy is recovering. After all the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which measures the nation's output is growing and Wall Street's "too big to fail" investment banks are handing out bonuses larger than the lifetime earnings of American workers.

But if the economy is recovering, the American people are not. As the New York Times Bob Herbert writes:

There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.

The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.

The column is linked.